IID board passes $800 million budget

IMPERIAL — By a 3-2 vote Tuesday, the Imperial Irrigation District board of directors approved a 2021 budget of more than $800 million.

Directors James Hanks and Bruce Kuhn dissented over concerns that $18 million to $19 million being allocated for energy and capital expenses was actually going to be used in future years and not in 2021, and that 2020 onfarm conservation put in next year’s budget.

Finance Director Belen Valenzuela told the board this would allow the district to go out for revenue bonds if needed.

The $811 million budget consists of $532 million for the energy department and $279 million for the water department.

Valenzuela said since the last time the directors had seen the budget, an auditor position with a salary of $135,000 had been eliminated, and the two departments equally split that salary into their budgets.

One of Hanks’ concerns was the $32.8 million from 2020 for on-farm conservation. He questioned why that money would be in the 2021 budget when this was done in 2020.

On the water side, $98 million will be used as a carryover from 2020, as 90 percent of on-farm conservation in 2020 has not been paid.

Besides the money for on-farm conservation, there was a $38 million transfer from the Other Post Employee Benefits liability.

Hanks reiterated his concern of water being transferred in 2020, but not being budgeted until the following year.

“We still need to square that away,” he said. “It’s going to be an issue.”

The 2021 budget consists of 1,416 employees, which is an increase of 26 from the 2020 budget. Of the 26, 23 were in the energy department with many of them budgeted to be tree trimmers.

Hanks asked if there were other projects in the budget that were supposed to be done in 2020 and whether they had been flagged.

IID Director Alex Cardenas said the board has already had a couple workshops on the budget and wanted to move forward with a vote.

Kuhn questioned why the IID board would first approve the budget and then vote on a capital reimbursement resolution, saying those agenda items needed to be reversed. This resolution amounted to almost $6 million for electrical systems and another $13.5 million for water projects in bonds.

Kuhn said if the district was short on resources, it would not be wise to go out and incur more debt with revenue bonds.

Valenzuela said this item would be for future years and allows the district to go out for these bonds.

“Why not wait until 2022 and 2023 when these things come up?’ Kuhn asked. “If we lost money, I would not borrow money. That is a slippery slope.

“Would that not impact the budget we are going to vote on?” he asked, saying in all of his years on the board he does not remember voting on the budget when there was a capital reimbursement resolution that needed to be discussed first.

Board President Norma Sierra Galindo told Kuhn the board has always done it this way and for him to say they have not is not true.

Kuhn, who will be off the board in December, said maybe it’s time for this to be changed.